Dell (NASDAQ: DELL ), whose competitors include Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), reported results for the second quarter on Thursday after the market closed. Like many others, I wasn't expecting the bottom-line results to miss estimates. But it did.

The top line was okay. Net sales increased 11% to $16.4 billion, beating estimates that called for growth of around 8%. But earnings per diluted share were not okay. They came in at 31 cents, a 6% decrease in terms of year-over-year comparisons. Wall Street was looking for 36 cents per diluted share. Costs went up at a greater rate than sales growth, driving the gross margin down. As can be seen, Dell needs to better manage its cost structure so that it may protect its margins. It's a shame that the company couldn't have grown the bottom line considering the nice revenue gain.

Not only was the profit drop disillusioning, but the operational cash flow was likewise disappointing. It dropped 40% during the quarter, and it decreased 29% over the least six months. Dell watches its cash flow carefully, and it would like the money generated from operations to exceed the net-earnings figure. So far, the company has fallen short in this regard. However, according to the transcript, Dell's CFO, Brian T. Gladden, believes that operational cash flow will exceed net earnings. Shareholders obviously hope that he'll be ultimately proven correct on this prediction.